What do music notes mean

There is a half-step between every key on the piano, whether you are moving from a white key to a black key or a white key to a white key. Even though there is no black key between E and F or between B and C, each pair is still only a half-step apart.

Because there is a black between C and D, D and E, etc. Remember how we discussed earlier that a sharp raises the pitch of a note by a half-step and a flat lowers the pitch of a note by a half-step? The black keys perform this function on a piano.

For example, the black key you see between C and D sounds a C-sharp or a D-flat. Visually, it makes complete sense because the black key is positioned above the C and below the D. The note between D and E is a D-sharp or an E-flat, and so on. The order in which flats or sharps are added to a key signature is so important because, in Western music, much of the melody and harmony of a piece is built using the notes of a single scale.

Scales are a set of notes ordered by a combination of whole steps and half steps. There are several types of scales in the musical language; this article will focus on major and minor scales. This particular scale has no sharps or flats.

It would also be played solely on the white keys of a keyboard. All major scales are comprised of the following pattern of tones: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step. If you were to start the scale on a note other than C, you would need to add sharps or flats to maintain this pattern of tones.

As you now know, there is a whole-step between A and B, but in a major scale, that distance needs to be a half-step. Therefore, we lower the pitch of the B by a half-step to B-flat. For the record, in a written scale, you never have two notes containing the same letter name.

In the F-major scale, you would never see the B-flat written as an A-sharp. The distance between the second and third notes of a major scale is a whole-step. Since there is only a half-step between E and F, we need to raise the F by a half-step to an F-sharp. The same is true between the sixth and seventh notes of the scale, which is why there is a written C-sharp.

Every major scale has a relative minor scale. A relative minor scale shares the same key signature as its major scale, but it begins on the sixth note of the major scale. For example, A is the sixth note of the C-major scale, which makes A-minor the relative minor scale of C-major.

Look at the F-major and D-major scales above? What is the relative minor scale for each of those major scales? Hint: find the sixth note of the scale. Because you are using the same key signature as a major scale, but starting on the sixth note, there is a different pattern of whole-steps and half-steps.

Take a look at the A-minor scale below. All natural minor scales are comprised of the following pattern of tones: whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step. You may be wondering why this scale is called A-natural minor, and not simply A-minor. That is because there are three types of minor scale. The natural minor scale makes no alteration to the notes in the indicated key signature; in other words, there are no accidentals.

In the harmonic minor scale, the seventh note of the scale is raised by one half-step. In the A-harmonic minor scale, the G becomes a G-sharp. The third type of minor scale is the melodic minor scale. This one is a bit tricky, because it is different ascending than descending. This article features a full introduction to the language of music, plus it includes free tools to get you started on your music journey. Do you just want to expand your general artistic knowledge?

Well, learning the basics of how to read sheet music can help you achieve all of these, and in a shorter amount of time than you might have thought! They represent the pitch, speed, and rhythm of the song they convey, as well as expression and techniques used by a musician to play the piece. Think of the notes as the letters, the measures as the words, the phrases as the sentences and so forth.

Learning to read music really does open up a whole new world to explore! Music is made up of a variety of symbols, the most basic of which are the staff, the clefs, and the notes. All music contains these fundamental components, and to learn how to read music, you must first familiarize yourself with these basics. The staff consists of five lines and four spaces. Each of those lines and each of those spaces represents a different letter, which in turn represents a note.

Those lines and spaces represent notes named A-G, and the note sequence moves alphabetically up the staff. There are two main clefs with which to familiarize yourself; the first is a treble clef. The treble clef has the ornamental letter G on the far left side.

The treble clef notates the higher registers of music, so if your instrument has a higher pitch, such as a flute, violin or saxophone, your sheet music is written in the treble clef. Higher notes on a keyboard also are notated on the treble clef. We use common mnemonics to remember the note names for the lines and spaces of the treble clef. The bass clef notates the lower registers of music, so if your instrument has a lower pitch, such as a bassoon, tuba or cello, your sheet music is written in the bass clef.

Lower notes on your keyboard also are notated in the bass clef. Notes placed on the staff tell us which note letter to play on our instrument and how long to play it. There are three parts of each note, the note head , the stem , and the flag. Every note has a note head , either filled black or open white. When you see a tie it means that the time values of the notes are added together to create a longer note.

Read more in my guide to tied notes here. You can read more about the different music rest symbols here. Musical ornaments are a shorthand way of writing more complicated musical devices but with a simple symbol.

I cover a lot of the common ones in this post on musical ornaments here if you want to read more about them. Another type of musical note that you might see is a group of notes with a number three over the top. These notes with a number three over them are a type of tuplet called triplets. To read more about them check out my in-depth guide to triplets where I go into more detail about how to draw them with loads of examples.

You can also get another type of tuplet irregular time division called a duplet. More by the author:. Now let's look at the notes in the Bass Clef. Now let's see what they look like together on the Grand Staff. Keep doing this each day until you can name the notes without looking at any hints. Middle C, is found exactly where it says it is - in the middle of the Treble and Bass Clef.

See how easy it is to learn your notes? Did you make this project? Share it with us! I Made It! A Literal Handbag by Tatterhood in Halloween. Chameleon Mask by hugheswho in Halloween. Genaille's Rods by Wingletang in Education.